The Harland Highway - 834 - Question of the day. Cool song and cool phonecalls

Episode Date: January 12, 2017

Harland takes phone calls from listeners and plays a cool RETRO song. Also, the question of the day! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holy Jumping Toadstools! Hey everybody, it's Harlan Williams. You are on the Harland Highway podcast. Welcome. Thank you for being here. So great to have y'all. Hey, here. Wild show today, we're going to take a few of your phone calls. I'm going to answer a few of your nutty phone calls. We have some happy ones. We have a sad one. One of our listeners is very upset. that everybody's dying, and I just want to try and, you know, quench his fears and his sadness. And then we have another caller that's very excited about some music I introduced to you guys. So we're also going to play a song, a really cool song from way back when that many of you probably have never heard, or if you have heard, might have forgotten, but it's a really kind of funky, cool tune that was really kind of weird and out of place for its time.

So we're going to play that. And then also the Harland Highway Question of the Day. I did something the other day that just made me feel like a Nimrod. Like I did something really, really stupid. And so my question of the day will ask why I did it and ask if any of you have ever done the dumb, stupid thing that I did the other day. So that's coming up on the Harland Highway Question of the Day. So you're ready to go?

Let's do it. Put your helmets on. This is the Harland Highway. Sit down, strap in, and tighten your diaper. Come here, baby. You're about to go down the Harlan Highway. No! I didn't bargain for this.

Oh, yes, you did. Chick-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chall-main, baby. I'm the creature from all the space. Please don't stop. I got to feed an ugly face. Magnificent performance. This is the Harlan Highway. I hate you.

Well, that's the way it goes. What do you say? We get down to business. Hello? Debbie from Phoenix, Arizona. I usually call to request when I can hear Anne Roosie, but this time I've been meaning to thank you for months and months and months for introducing me to propeller heads. They are just great.

I love them. And I've never have known about them if it weren't for you. So thank you so much. I love you. Ah, yes, the propeller heads. You know, I love getting Voicemails like that You know, every now and then

I drop in music That I like into my podcast You know, a random song here A random song there, a band And I try to go for bands and music That I think maybe you guys haven't heard before And the propeller heads Was one of the

One of the bands that I dropped in there And I'm so glad you like that band. They make some really cool music. So I'm really glad you liked when I played the propeller heads for you, Debbie. And where were you from again, Debbie?

I forget. Where were you from? Phoenix, Arizona. Oh, yeah, right, right, right. Phoenix, Arizona. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Well, speaking of songs, and since you brought it up, I want to play another song.

And this was a song. It's a weird song, man. But I think it'll fit in to like the obscure song category that I you know like I said I like to throw onto this show now and then and this song it came out like I think it was in the 70s I think it was the 1970s you know kind of after after Vietnam had wound down and it was still kind of a touchy area

and this guy named Paul Hardcastle like created a song called 19 and I guess 19 was the average age of the men that they were sending to Vietnam to fight. And so he wrote this song called 19 and it's a weird song because he just keeps kind of repeating 19

over and over and it's kind of a funky song but it's a really weird subject matter because he's singing about like you know, Vietnam and the stuff that went down and just it's kind of out there and it doesn't really fit any

category or genre but yet it had kind of a funky sound like the propeller heads. It had kind of like this funky sound with some electronics. But again, wrapped in this weird subject matter of Vietnam. So I thought I'd play it for you. A lot of you guys have probably never heard it. Many of you might have, but for some of the younger listeners, this might be a treat for your ears or you might think it's a dumb song.

But I always thought it was cool. Very original and just, you know, it was a hit on the radio. about the kind of the bad experience of Vietnam. So here it is Paul, Paul Hardcastle and 19. In 1965, Vietnam seemed like just another foreign war, but it wasn't. It was different in many ways, and so were those who did the fighting. In World War II, the average age of the combat soldier was 26. In Vietnam, he was 19.

In Vietnam, he was 19. Vietnam, he was 19. In Vietnam, he was 19, 19. The heaviest fighting of the past two weeks continued today, 25 miles northwest of Saigon. I wasn't really sure what was going on. 19, 19, 19, 19, 19. In Vietnam, the combat soldier typically served a 12-month tour of duty, but was exposed to hostile fire almost every day.

In Saigon, a U.S. military spokesmen said today, more than 700 enemy troops were killed last week, in that sense, border area. Throughout all of South Vietnam, the anime lost a total of 2,689 soldiers. All those who remember the war, they were the deck of them see. Destruction of men in the prize. Whose average age was 19? According to a veteran According to a veteran's administration study,

Half of the Vietnam combat veterans suffer from what psychiatrists call post-traumatic stress disorder. Many vets complain of alienation, rage, or guilt. Some succumb to suicidal thoughts. Eight to ten years after coming home, almost 800,000. Men are still fighting the Vietnam War. None of them receive the heroes welcome. So, Zygon. 19.

19. 19. 19. 19 19 19 19 19

19 Hurtain Hurtain Hurtain Hiron Sucon Zicon If not

Sucon Zicon Gurnful Zicon Furnful heart Ligon I was really sure what was going on I wasn't really sure what was going on I love you. So there you go, another kind of kooky, random song

but isn't it a funky tune and a really bizarre subject matter? And it doesn't sound like something that came out of the 70s, does it? Like, I mean, you put that on, it might have been the early 80s, might have been the 80s. I could be wrong, but it was somewhere, it was decades ago. And it almost sounds like a song if it came out today, you would think it was a current song. So for those of you that have never been exposed to, no, no, no, no, no, no, 19. I didn't really know what was going on. Now you do.

So thanks for the call, and I hope you enjoyed that song. Again, I don't own the rights to that song or anything. Whenever I put a weird, obscure song on my podcast, it's not to pirate it. It's not to gain anything from it. What it really is is to hope that it gets exposed to more people and it benefits the artist. I hope that people go and download this song, buy this song. It's a cool song. So I really do it just to promote this type of song in the context of the story that I have about it.

So I hope you dig it. Paul Hardcastle 19. The Harland Highway, question of the day. Okay, this one is kind of a funny question of the day. Maybe you guys can help me out, but this happened to me, and I found it kind of funny, but you ever go to talk to someone or address someone or go to say something,

and your brain's kind of thinking of two words at the same time, right and you kind of you're talking and in mid-word your brain shifts gears and you end up with a word that doesn't exist like for example the other day I was walking through a parking lot

I was going into a restaurant to get some lunch and one of the guys that works there came out the back door and was taking a bag of garbage out to the thing and he looked up and he saw me and you know didn't know me from Adam. I didn't know him, but just, you know, a friendly greeting. Like, you know, how people say, hey, how you doing? How's it going? Have a nice day. That type of small little greeting, friendly greeting.

This guy goes, hey, how you doing, man? And I go, hey, how's it going? Buddy. Bother. And I'm like, what? So I know this is messy, but it was messy. what I started to say was how's it going buddy and for some reason in the middle of my address to him I thought no I'll call him brother and right in midword like why and so I ended up saying this word that was really I was like oh hey how's it going brother or it was maybe it was the other way around maybe I said how's it going buddy Like it was just, it was a non-word, and I was, and I, he kind of like, there was a quick little, like, look in his eye, like, what the fuck did he just say? Did he just call me a brot-bruddy?

Did you just, did you just call me a brodie? A bruddy? It was some, like, weird cross-breed mix of a word, and I just felt like an idiot. I felt like a dumb idiot. I was just like, I walked past him, and I go, what the hell did I? I just say. And then I kind of broke it down even more. It's like, I don't even know this guy.

He's not my buddy and he's not my brother. And I just like, I just, I just mixed two together. Suddenly I've got a brodie or a braddy or a bruddy or a bud bruddy. It's just like, what a dork. And I felt like such an idiot. And I thought, I can't be the only one. I can't be the only one that's mixed two words together. to be an idiot.

Oh, God. So my question of the day is, have any of you guys ever, like an idiot like me, have you ever like in mid-word stumbled and blended two words together to create a new word that doesn't exist and sounds idiotic? There you go. I'm exposing myself and letting you see what a dope I am. What a bro-huddy I am. What a buhuddy I am.

what a bud brother i am whatever i i i don't know what i am but if you have any words like that call me and let me know three two three seven three nine forty three thirty three thirty three three three three three changing words in midword to create your own new stupid word what a dumb gee it what a dumb dey it i am the harland highway question of the Day. I love you. Hey everybody. Who wants to have better sex? No? Yes. Yes. The answer is yes. You always want to have better sex. That's what you want it to be better, not worse. Trust me. And Adam and Eve is offering 50% off just about any item plus free shipping. And more than that, Adam and Eve wants to make your life easy. They offer discrete shipping as your privacy is a priority. Plus 100% free shipping on your

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and 100% free shipping code Harland. Have fun. Don't throw your back out. Hello? Hello? Oh, Harland. What is going on? everybody seems to be dying

versus George Michael not Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia I don't understand why everybody's dying could you please make a tribute to your podcast for these people Chicken Chal Meng

I know I know gosh I feel sad I can I can hear the sadness in your voice it's really reaching through and touching me I don't like the place you're in I don't like the sadness in your voice. I can feel it. I can feel it.

It's in there. It's deep. It's in there deep, man. I don't like you. That's genuine. I feel so bad. Oh, Harland. What is going on?

Everybody seems to be dying. Oh, I'm sorry. I wish I could make it stop. I wish I could make it go away. I don't want you to feel bad. But dying, boy, dying's a tough one, isn't it, man? It's a tough one. And just so you know,

I did do a little tribute to George Michael. Okay, I did a tribute to George Michael just a few weeks ago. And I just did a tribute last week to Kerry Fisher. If you go back and listen, if you look in the menu, the archives of the last few podcasts, you'll see me talking about the passing of Kerry Fisher and how I was actually at her house and I went to a party there,

and I got to meet her and I also did a big segment about George Michael and also Alan Thick passed away. You know, Alan Thick is another guy that I worked with that I did some comedy shows with. I was a guest on his TV show. Alan Thick, I called him Thicky. I did an episode of his TV show where I had to roast them.

And yeah, it's really tough, man. You know, Alan Thick died playing hockey. That's what really pisses me off. And Alan Thick, like I said, I've worked with him recently in the last few years. He was a healthy guy. He was a big kind of healthy man for his age. He had a big, strong build, and he looked healthy, and I just don't like it when death takes you when you're being healthy. What right does death have to take you when you're exercising?

I get it if Alan Thick was laying on the couch with a bowl of Baskin-Robbins. ice cream covered with chocolate sauce and a can of pringles and a bowl of, you know, white cheddar popcorn and a bacon sandwich on his belly. But this guy was engaged in, you know, cardiovascular athletics. This guy was playing hockey with his son nonetheless. Death, have you no shame. Not only was he exercising, he was with his kid, man. Come on, dude.

What did Alan Thick ever do to you? But it's been rough, man. We lost Prince. We lost David Bowie. I mean, death is just a crusher, man. Death is a crusher. And what's interesting is, you know, as human beings, death is a different game than it is for all other living creatures.

Think about it. In a way, you're lucky because as a human, as a human being, yes, you could die of natural causes, you could die from a disease, you could be murdered, you could be the victim of terrorism, you could die of an infection. There's a lot of things you could die of, but a lot of those, the odds are against you dying of that. You know, humans usually, if they live a healthy lifestyle

and don't like, you know, travel to dangerous places can pretty much have a nice, long, productive, healthy life. If you look at the numbers, if you look at the ratio, if you look at the, you know, how people die and how long they live. And this is going to be a bit of a weird way to remind you of how kind of lucky you are to be alive and how precious and how quick life can come and go. And I hate to even recommend this, but this is something I did the other day, just out of curiosity. I was on YouTube, and I was doing some research on something, and there was a video, it said something like collection of coyotes,

leopards, and lions killing things. And so I clicked on it out of curiosity, and I realized there's a whole, there's a whole subworld of animals, animal killings, you know, lions and snakes and cobras and jaguars and panthers and crocodiles. There's a whole like underworld of videos. They're like animal snuff videos, man. And they show, they demonstrate that how raw nature is, is that death death is even less welcoming and less forgiving in nature. At least in the human world, you know, sometimes you can tell death might be coming if you get diagnosed. Maybe you get shot, maybe you get stabbed, maybe you get a disease, but you can get treated.

You can maybe cheat death. Maybe you can treat it. You can avoid it. You can put it off. You can even come back from the dead. They have defibrillators, right? You could be dead for, you know, speaking of being dead, Carrie Fisher, I believe, was, I think they said she was technically dead

or didn't have a heartbeat for like 10 minutes, and technically they brought her back. Now, it didn't work out. She didn't survive, but there's people that have come back from comas and this and that. But, man, you watch those nature videos. Oh, my God. It's like a dog sleeping in its backyard, and someone left the security.

security cameras on and three coyotes sneak up and just rip it apart. Like your family dog, like fluffy or rover, just pulled apart. There's some videos of people like in foreign countries, I guess, South America and Africa, where there's actual leopards and jaguars prowling into people's homes and getting caught on security camera and just grabbing the dog or the cat and ripping it apart. And I'll tell you what, man, in nature, it's just final. It's like you make a wrong step right or left. You are just, you're done, you're gone.

I mean, how many ants did you step on today, you pavement pounders, people listening? How many flies did you kill? How many worms did you run over? How many frogs and grasshoppers did you kill? I mean, everything else in nature is just so susceptible to die. lying to death. And I think as humans, we forget that we're kind of in an exclusive position where sometimes we even get to pick and choose the timing of our death.

I mean, there's assisted suicides now, or if you want to do it, it's grim, but you could even commit suicide. And in nature, no way, man, you're just taking when you're taking. You're taking for taking a wrong turn at that pine tree. or you're taken for slipping in the water, or you're taken for not paying attention when the lion sneaks up on you. Oh, my God, you're dead for sleeping under the wrong tree.

And I know it doesn't soften the pain of death, but if nothing else, remind yourself that despite the horror of death and losing loved ones and our fellow human beings, just think how much colder and final and brutal and savage it is out in the rest of the world. And not that there aren't savage and brutal deaths in our world, like I said, there are murders and drive-bys and this and that, but per capita in a ratio basis, you know, those violent murder-type deaths are very minute compared to humans dying of other causes. And so I feel the pain in your voice, and it seems to resonate even deeper and harder when it's someone that brought something to our lives.

You know, we don't know all the people that work in the office buildings downtown, but we do know George Michael and Prince and David Bowie who come through the speakers in our car every day and in the headphones from our, you know, our MP3 players. we know actors and we know politicians we know people we see in the news and so we feel it more and it's it you know that sadness that depression in your voice i feel it man it weighs heavy and it's tough as we get older you know i'm i'm in a position where i'm starting to get older and and and you know people that were in my life family members and and friends and colleagues and comedians and actors i've had i've had i've had people die along the way. And it's really tough.

Death is a really tough thing to handle. And so all you can do is enjoy every moment, man. Listen to George Michael's music and take the joy from it. And try not to feel down. Feel happy that David Bowie and Prince and even Alan Thick and anybody, even people in your life, be happy that they will. are in your realm just for a moment, that they brushed up against you and that they offered something and they exposed you to something and they shared their light with you.

And in a way, it's a gift and it's painful and it hurts to see them pass and go, but try and focus, try and turn your energy. I'm saying this to you to try and help you because I feel the sorrow and the dismay in your voice and it pains me too, man. And so I'm hoping that my words can help, you know, alleviate that and maybe help you find some light in this dark moment you're in. But focus on the joy, focus on the fact that for whatever reason they were put on this earth and they meant something to you

and they offered you something and they gave you something and you and you you absorbed it and you it had meaning to you versus they were never born or versus they had never made a record or versus they had never reached out into the world and tried to touch people. Okay? And I know it's sad we all go, man, everybody goes.

And so you got to, as I always said, you know, I talked a while back, when I've talked on the show about friends that have died, my mother passed away a few years ago, and my way of coping, as I always say, let them continue to live through you. Let their spirit come up through you and let your ability to go and look at a tree

and run in a park and drive in your car and go eat some ice cream and go to a movie. Let their spirit be commingled with your spirit and let their joy and all the things they gave you intermingle with who you are and what you are and almost let their spirits see through your eyes and enjoy life and fill you up with the goodness and the positive energy they gave you. Okay? Okay. I hope that helps, man. I just don't like hearing you sad like that. And, you know, maybe going forward and with other people dying, maybe there's something in there

that helps you cope. But if nothing I said helps, just know that we're all with you, man. We're all feeling it. We all feel the pain and we share it with you. And hopefully you can just go put a George Michael song on and just sit back and listen to his voice, listen to the music, know that he had meaning,

know that he gave something and just sit back and smile and listen to a song. and feel good, okay? Oh, Holland. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. And I think maybe we'll just leave it there because that's kind of like a, you know,

one of those, sit back and think about it kind of runs. And, you know, it's kind of weird to go from that back into comedy and being goofy. So we'll leave it kind of somber here today. We'll leave it kind of introspective. and thought-provoking and, uh, you know, kind of cosmic and mystical, man. We like went to a really cool place, like, I don't know, maybe a place like... Phoenix, Arizona.

Yeah. So there you go. Um, hey, let's do some, uh, quick announcements. Uh, this Friday, this Friday, I just, this is kind of a last minute thing. I will be at the, uh, Melrose improv to help put a smile. on your face. Lift your spirits. Friday the 13th. Yeah, Friday the 13th, man. I'll be at the Melrose Improv on Melrose Boulevard and Hollywood with my buddy David Keckner. You know David Keckner from Anchorman, the big bald dude that wears the

white cowboy hat. Oh my God, he is so freaking funny. My buddy Michael Rosenbaum, who's who played Lex Luthor, another bald guy in Smallville. He's just starting to, you know, try his hand at stand-up. So he's going to jump up and do a little set. I mean, it's going to be a fun show, man. So there you go. Friday the 13th, Melrose Improv. If you're in town, come on down and check it out.

I'm going to do a long set, like probably like 40, 45 minutes. That's just going to be a good time, baby. So come on out. Also, let's see, next weekend, I will be in Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Florida. Not this weekend, West Palm Beach, Florida at the improv, Thursday through Sunday. Get your tickets. Go online to Harlandwilliams.com, and you can order your tickets right there at my website. Also, while you're there, check out our store. We have some great merchandise.

for sales some really fun funny stuff uh also um you can write to me at the uh contact page at harl williams dot com or you can call me 323 739 43330 323 739 43330 you can leave me a voicemail or whatever you want and uh you know maybe i'll play your message on the air just like my despondent friend who misses everybody feel so bad also don't forget to get our free app on your cell phone just go into your app store and type in the Harland Highway and you can listen to the podcast on your phone all the freaking time dudes so there you go that's it for today keep on smiling keep on living

live for those who can't live anymore live for yourselves live big live strong we're only here once make the most of it have fun love you guys and until next time chicken mean, baby. I love you.